Welcome to the City of Shelton Conservation Commission's Google Groups Service.

The Commission is all volunteers, appointed by the Mayor to serve in an advisory role as the environmental conscience of the community for Shelton's governmental decisions.  The Commission (photo at left: Joe Walsh, Hank Lauriet, Teresa Gallagher <conservation agent>, Jim Tate, Tom Harbinson <chairman>, Ed McCreery, Bill Dyer <vice chairman>) makes decisions primarily based upon our 1993 Open Space Plan.  Further information is referenced on our webpage at cityofshelton.org.  We look forward to public input as we update a Draft Open Space Plan.  You can subscribe to our Google calendar (for convenience only, City Clerk is the legal notice repository of agendas) but generally we meet the first Wednesday of the month at 7PM in City Hall on the 3rd Floor in the Planning & Zoning office.

As a City agency, we must follow the laws regarding freedom of information.  The State of Ct. Freedom of Information Commission has a draft ruling (never adopted with so many questions) that considers recorded electronic communications (includes emails) transmitted to a quorom of members to be a "meeting".  Meetings require notice of their being held so that they are "open" to the public, must be recorded, and such archives and/or minutes be available to the public.  The Commission requires email to communicate effectively and efficiently (eg.: digital photos of violations in the field and subsequent discussion for timely action) and this is our solution to address the FOI concerns.

The ConsComm supports "open governement".  While there are draft regulations of the FOI Commission, they at this point have not adopted anything formally that addresses email communications.  In 2004, the ConsComm began testing an answer to the FOI regulations being proposed, and adopted a policy on 2006/Sep/6 to use the Google groups service as our attempt to provide public access to "meetings" occuring between commissioners.  The method has been well received by both the public and the press as helping to keep them informed as to our activities.  The policy was reviewed and clarified more fully in Feb2008 as well as being described in summary form.  You can click here or on the picture below to see a larger diagram outlining the policy's automated process.

This Google groups service publishes and documents in real-time any quorom communications (public can view but not participate in these electronic "discussions"), and is an addition to the convenience of the minutes and agendas posted on the City of Shelton's website (past 3 yrs).  When the agenda and minutes are sent to the City Clerk via email for satisfying the legal posting, it appears here simultaneously without the human involvement needed to publish on the City website or pin to a bulletin board.  It should be noted again that The City of Shelton's Clerk's office is the legal repository of minutes and tape recordings of our monthly Regular Meetings.  For further convenience, we have available minutes of our meetings here in our files sections (backwards through 2003). 

The Chairman personally publishes copies of his full responses to media articles and requests, as well as public requests for information, on his personal Conservation Blog.